Merriton

Randy waited at a table at Masawa for Kevin. He had already ordered the lunch they had shared so many times. He was sick of it. Sick of the restaurants. Sick of lunches with Kevin. Sick of San Francisco. Sick of it all. If Kevin thought that a little conversation was going to stop him from moving, then Kevin didn’t know him very well.

“Random!” Kevin lifted his chin and headed to the table. Randy was the first to talk, “Listen, if this is some sort of intervention or something, then you’re wasting your time.” Kevin chuckled and shook his head, “Talk you out of this?! Heck no! I’m going to spend every weekend at that cabin skiing Mt. Zen, man! I know you’re not a skier, so I have no idea why you want to go out there, but I’m all on board with this train, buddy!”

Kevin sat down and slouched in his chair. “Sierra says you’re gonna live there, though. Like, all the time. She quit the firm and everything.” Randy shook his head. This WAS an intervention. He just leaned back and took it while Kevin talked, “You know, Sierra’s a catch. If she’s willing to leave San Francisco and go to the woods with you, you’re a lucky man. She says she’s just gonna be a wife there. You guys pregnant?”

Randy looked at Kevin. Maybe it wasn’t an intervention. “No…” Maybe Sierra knew something that he didn’t. He tracked back in his mind. Could Sierra be pregnant? No, he was definitely sure she wasn’t unless she was lying to him. “No, did she tell you she was pregnant?” Kevin laughed, “No! She got kinda pissed off with me for askin’, too. Went off about how I just assumed she must be pregnant because she wanted a change or somethin’. I stopped listenin’ after a while.”

The food came and they lifted up greasy globules of meat with the spongy bread. Same freakin’ food they had once a week when he worked with Kevin. “I would have quit three months earlier if it hadn’t been for you. I stayed so long just because you made it fun.” Kevin laughed and stuffed the food in his mouth. “Working there is so much fun, I don’t know why you left, man! It’s a dream job. Sure, we get busy, but it’s a good busy, you know.”

Randy felt a sick anguish fill his gut. “They only bought Zerbitz so they could have a presence in the market.” Kevin chewed. “You knew that when you sold it, man. Don’t know how much you got, but based on what the other guys were offering you, I’m guessing it hit seven figures.” Kevin watched Randy’s eyes for a glimmer of an answer, but Randy just replied the same way he always replied, “Undisclosed means undisclosed, Kevin.” Kevin smiled, “Eight? Don’t tell me it was eight.”

Randy looked up with no emotion. “It doesn’t matter how much they paid for Zerbitz. They’re letting it die on the vine and the competition is taking over. They aren’t even trying.” He looked down at the food and his own greasy fingers. “I sold Zerbitz so that I could have their resources. I wanted a team of engineers so we could grow. We atrophied, instead.” He rubbed his hands on a napkin and took a swig of water. “Spicy.”

Kevin looked at the food, “Yeah, it’s a little more spicy than normal. Good, though. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the same meal here twice. We always order the same thing and they just serve up what they want.”

Randy looked at the huge plate. “We always get the same color of glop. It just…” His voice trailed off. Kevin kept eating and the silence between them felt comfortable. Kevin was the one to break it. “This Mt. Zen thing is good for you. You’re thinkin’ that you’re going to live there forever, but this is just what you need. You’ll work there. They got Internet. In two years, you’ll have some new project to sell off to the highest bidder and you’ll be back.”

Randy sighed, “It’s not called Mt. Zen.”

Kevin hit the table. “Dude! You’re not listening! This place, it’s gonna heal you. There’s nothin’ to do there but code, man! No release parties. No VC chasing. Nothin’. You’re just gonna code your ass off while you’re up there and when you come back, you’ll have a brand new Zerbitz that everyone’s gonna want.” Kevin picked up his bottle, his greasy fingers leaving brown smudges on the label. “And this time, you’ll know better. This time, Sierra will negotiate a deal that will get you those programmers you want AND eight figures.”

Kevin put down the bottle, but Randy couldn’t stop staring at the brown and greasy smudges on the label.

“I’m tired, Kevin.” Kevin leaned back in his chair and wiped his hands off on the napkin. Randy felt the surge of words spill out. “Sierra and I survived the Dot Bomb, but just barely. When I got laid off, it felt like a knife in my stomach. Sure, I had all those stock options, but they were worthless when they tanked. I started Zerbitz because I was bored, Kevin. BORED. I couldn’t get work, so I just wrote it for fun. Thinking about that year that we survived on Sierra’s pay…” Randy looked out the window at the pierced youth passing the small restaurant. “You know, things were hard because business got slow for her then too. No need for a corporate lawyer when all the corporations are going belly up. I see it coming, Kevin. It’s coming again.”

Kevin smiled, “Yeah, I know. All we can do is keep our resumes up to date and our ears to the ground.” Randy shook his head. “Nope. Not this time. I’m leaving. I’m getting out before the bubble pops.” Kevin pulled the label off his bottle. “Easy for you. You’ve got all your Zerbitz money to fall back on. I’m just a programmer.” Randy laughed, “Well, when the axe falls, you just pack up and come to Merriton. We’ve got a room where a guy blew his head off waiting for you.”

Kevin laughed, “He blew his head off waiting for me?” Randy laughed from the bottom of his stomach. It was the first time in two weeks that a laugh had come from his belly and it felt good. “Yeah, Kevin. Waiting for you…”

Kevin stood up. “Gotta go back to work. Oh! Sierra called ‘cause she said you needed help moving, so I’ll be there on Saturday. I took a couple of days off and I’m driving up with you two and helpin’ you unload. Tried to tell her that you should just get movers.” Randy took the check to the register and Kevin let him pay. “Movers? Man, they’re too expensive.”